Architectural Blueprints
Blueprint, 1999-2002
This series of blueprints depict tower blocks from around the UK. Each building is first photographed, then converted into a simple line drawing which is in turn photocopied to produce a template from which the blueprints are produced. This process is one of fictionalisation, removing the buildings from their specific location and returning them to the ‘ideal’ state of the architects’ design. The only remnant of their original location is how each image is cut off (for instance, where a particular tree obscures part of the building) and by their titles (the first few letters of their postcode). These buildings are already separated from their origins, representing remnants of a modernist future that failed to materialise. Their rendering as blueprints not only returns them to an utopian ideal state but also mirrors their ultimate fate; being a light sensitive medium and not ‘fixed’ the images fade and degrade over the period they are on show.
Blueprints from this series have been shown at Fa1 Contemporary Art, London and at Waygood Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne - click here for press release.
